Concept

After doing a whole load of research on abstraction and why people use abstract art, I noticed that everyone used the idea of abstraction to express themselves, or show emotions. Vladinsky thought that colours evoked specific emotions, Pollock’s work looked at wild physical action and have come to represent the revolutionary mood of the time, Willem de Kooning’s work centered around aggressive applications of paint that created emotionally intense imagery, Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman used the expressive potential of colour within their work, Jitka Hanslova used the forest where she grew up as the foundation to her work and finally Charles March took photographs of the trees around him, as they have always played an important part in his life. He used abstraction to add a sense of emotion to the work.

After all this, I started to think about what the photos evoke in me. They are about movement and the juxtaposition between beauty and confusion. What immediately occurred to me is my moving experience. I have lived in three different countries, and although this has been a fantastic experience, it’s also been incredibly hard. These images accurately portray my feelings towards my past.

0-7 – The Netherlands

7-9 – New house in The Netherlands

9-12 – America

12-14 – The Netherlands

14-18 – Buckinghamshire, UK

18-20 – Both Surrey (parents) and Hampshire (Uni)

Obviously this shows movement. Although it has been tough, I absolutely love the fact that I’ve lived in all these places. 

 

52 Week Photo Challenge

This week's theme was "technology". The themes keep getting harder! For the longest time I had no idea what to do. I know technology is all around us, but I didn't want to take a picture of something obvious. People started uploading their interpretations of the theme on the 18th of February so I was able to get some inspiration from their photos. My initial idea was to take a photo outside, rather than staying inside and making it easy for myself, but that didn't quite work out. I didn't feel very enthusiastic about anything I saw outside, and started to think more in depth, as well as looking into what kind of photography I like. Obviously I like landscape photography, but I'm also really interested in abstract. Thus I decided to create something abstract. That way, it wouldn't be anything obvious nor anything that someone had already done.
This is what I came up with. It's a close up of a Bose speaker. Because taking the photo, I started to think about what kinds of things make an abstract photo interesting, and in my opinion it should have some kind of pattern to it. When looking through my abstract imagery, I usually tend to take photos of a repeated pattern (eg. windows on a building, solar panels etc). The amount of repetition in this weeks photo is almost endless which makes the viewers' eyes jump around the whole photo, trying to establish what it is.

52 Week Photo Challenge

This week the theme was "weather". It look me a while to think of what to do. Again, I started off by thinking about the things I didn't want to do, in this case just a plain photo of the sky. But it's quite difficult to get around that, since the theme is pretty clear. Instead of taking just one photo, I wanted to compare the weather over a few days. Hopefully getting a sunny shot, a cloudy shot, a rainy shot etc. I started this on Thursday and took a photo everyday at around 17.00. Thursday through Sunday were all beautiful days, which I wasn't really expecting. However I think it worked out in my favour.
The shots look great together and there is a real continuation between them because the weather is so similar. You can tell each of the photos is taken at a similar time by looking at the orange glow towards the bottom of the photos. It's interesting to see the recurring dark clouds in the first three images and a completely cloudless sky in the final one. If had been raining or a completely white sky, I don't think the photos would have worked together this nicely. I wanted to keep a bit of skyline in the photos, to make sure it wasn't just a plain photo of the sky. It kind of contextualises it. Trying to keep that the same in every photo was incredibly hard though!!

Business Boom

It's been a little quiet on my blog, but like always I've been doing a lot of work. Firstly, I got my article published on Business Boom a couple days ago!! Here's the link:

http://businessboomcollective.com/0212/elaine-de-vries-photography/

It's a great article and I'm very happy with the outcome. It's an amazing opportunity to have an article about me on a website and therefore I've added a "Links" section on my website with a variety of websites that have my work on it. At the moment it's just Business Boom and Sunrise Senior Living (where I took some photos to gain work experience). 

Apart from that, I've also completely changed my website. I am so fussy with how it looks and want it to be as professional as possible. It's still a tumblr site, however I've installed a new theme. I feel it looks a lot more professional and more like how a photographer's website should look. to the left is a short little about section and my name. When you click on my name it brings you back to the main screen. I've added 9 pieces of my favourite work. The majority would be landscape photography (I would class the shopping centres as landscapes as they are shot in the same way). And the ducks and Dutch memorabilia also link together. I like how I'm mixing the photos with the videos. When you click on the photo it brings you to a new screen where there is a description and if there are more photos in the series (eg the shopping centres) you can scroll down to see all of them. 

On the left hand side I've got a list of clickable links. The first one links to my blog, the second to my Pinterest (which I'm still constantly updating), and the third goes to a second Tumblr website I've set up which solely shows the work I've done while being on the course. Finally there is a contact button, which opens your email program and a links section. 

I love the idea of having a separate tumblr for my University work. Although there is quite a bit of overlap now, slowly my University projects won't be part of my portfolio, but will still be on my second website. 

I've also been super busy at Subway, which has been taking over all my time. I keep getting called in for 6 hours shifts (even though I'm only meant to be working 6 hours a week!). It's so exhausting, but on top of that I still have to do my research, edit the practical photos, go to lectures, have tutorials, go to crits etc etc etc. And on top of THAT I have to update my blog, flickr, website, pinterest, facebook page, twitter, youtube and I also recently got a Vimeo. The second semester of the third year is definitely the toughest of all. 

52 Week Photo Challenge

For this week the theme is "Foreign". I'm foreign so it was pretty easy. I didn't want to take a picture of myself as that would be a bit silly, but throughout a lot of my photography, especially the work on my website, I've a explored the idea of my past and the different countries I've lived. I didn't want to make it anything depressing as I love the fact I've moved around so much. My initial idea was my ducks. They've been getting so much attention lately so I thought I'd do something similar. For Christmas I received a duck with the Dutch flag, and I already had one with the English flag and the American flag so I photographed each of them against a white background indicating the three different countries I've lived (so far). 

I really like the look of them, and think they will make an excellent addition to my portfolio! 

Time Lapse 3

It's been a little quite on the blog, but I've still been busy! I put together my third (and hopefully final) timelapse on Monday. It was a really nice and sunny day although there were cloudy intervals and it was really windy. This worked perfectly with the time lapse, as normal time lapses are usually about the movement of the landscape, eg the tops of the trees moving in the wind or the sunlight moving over time. In the motion blur timelapses, obviously I'm already moving the camera, but since I got the technique down, it was really interesting to see how each of the photos are almost identical, yet the sunlight moves through the frame (it'll make more sense when you view the video) or the tops of the trees create movement.

I pieced together my favourite scenes from each time lapse and made a final piece. The scenes from the second time lapse were all taken on cloudy days, so I couldn't just have half the video in the shadow and half in the sun without some kind of transition. The scene I was talking about earlier, with the sunny intervals is the link between the sun and the shade. I'm really happy with the outcome of my time lapse and hope the lecturers will like it just as much!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naKX4y7kB7M

Motion Blur Timelapse 2

I wasn't too happy with my first time lapse and I wasn't really sure whether I wanted to do another one. However, Daniel seemed quite impressed with it, and since I do love making time lapses, I thought I'd give it another go. I knew what I did wrong in the first one, so I know what I had to change. I went out again today, but it was a completely different day. It was dark and cloudy and completely motionless. I thought this would be the perfect day for the time lapse, as the darkness would allow me to take longer exposures. But.. it turned out it was just as boring on the time lapse as it was in real life. I did manage to make it a bit more interested by getting the lights from cars in the time lapse. It created some interesting shapes.

After viewing it on the laptop I was thoroughly impressed with myself. Instead of a time lapse that literally looks like I'm shaking my camera about, it's more like I'm taking a video of something that actually looks like that. Each of the photos look almost identical, so the movement in the photos is just the tops of the trees moving (other than a little bit of up and down movement). 

Something that stood out to me during the shoot was the fact that one still image looked completely abstract and unidentifiable, but when the series of photos played as a movie, it was quite obvious what you were looking at. The photo to the right is an example of it. The photo is taken of a really dirty pond. The bottom of the photo is the reflection of the tops of the trees, the green colour is the dirtiness of the pond, the browny-red colour is the muddy ground and the dark lines are the tree trunks. It's not the most obscure photo, but if you didn't have any of the information it could be pretty confusing. Anyway I created a time lapse, and when I played all the photos it just completely contextualised the photo. Some photos aren't as blurred as this one, so when I played the movie it almost seemed like it was picking out all the recognisable bits. The ground is probably the most recognisable in this shot, so if the next shot had the trees in focus, followed by the water in focus, you see the whole shot!

This is the link to the edited version of the video. I used one scene from my previous time lapse as I loved it! But the rest is all taken today. The shot above isn't part of the time lapse:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYlzi83aWYw

Comparison

I'm happy with the middle and the right image but am unsure which one to use for the first one. Both images are quite similar in colours so they both fit nicely with the other two images. The top photo is a bit more obvious, whereas the bottom one is completely obscure and unrecognisable. In the top photo, the trees go to the bottom of each of the photos, however in the second sequence the bottom of the photo is very dark and doesn't have as much detail.

If I go for the first sequence of photos, the first and third are quite obvious as to what the photo could be of, however in the second sequence, only the third photo is obvious. I think the next step is to get the photos printed and see what they look like in real life, rather than a screen!

52 Week Challenge

The theme of week 5 is Illuminated. This has probably been the theme I've struggled with the most... and it's only week 5! I have never really taken any photos focussing on lights so I had no idea where to begin. After google-ing for a bit, I came across a series of photos of blurry images taken at night. The blur was so extreme that the lights created this large circles in different colours. I loved these photos and thus decided to try it myself.

The photo to the right is taken from my bedroom window. We live on the fourth floor of a building so we're nice and high. The window is tilted at an angle so you can only see the sky when you're looking out. I never really bothered to get a chair and have a look at the view, but this theme was the perfect opportunity! There is one quite high apartment building and a few houses surrounding that. I blurred the camera so much that each of the circles ended up being quite big. I tried to get as many different lights and colours into the frame without being able to identify what you're looking at. I really like how the photos has turned out, and it really fits in with my other abstract work. I titled the photo "Portsmouth at Night".

After posting the photo on the flickr page, someone commented "awesome bokeh". Not knowing what that meant I googled it. It turns out, this style of images is called Bokeh!

Large Format Contact Sheet

These are all the images I took on my large format shoot. The three images that aren't moved are different techniques. The middle one in the top row is just a straight picture of the landscape, the right photo on the top row is a technique called tilt shift. I created this by keeping the back of the camera straight, and tilting the front part of the camera (with the lens) slightly up. The photo is blurry at the top, in focus in the middle, and blurry at the bottom. The right photo on the bottom row is also tilt shift, but slightly different. This photo is blurry on the left, in focus in the centre, and blurry to the right. I created this by, again, having the back straight, but the front of the camera is tilted left to right. I'm happy and relieved that all the motion blur images came out with the motion blur effect. The first image is very dark, but has the most movement out of all of them. The first photo on the middle row is definitely my favourite. The other two on the middle row are quite similar, although the third one shows the most resemblance to a real landscape photo. Unfortunately the middle bottom photo messed up, but that's just 1 out of 9!

Large Format Scans

Yesterday afternoon I spent an hour scanning my large format images and I'm so happy with how they came out! The colours look beautiful and very different in each of the photos. The photo above shows three of my favourite images. The first one is the most obvious as you can identify the most features, however the colours are so bright that it returns to the abstraction. The middle photo has completely different colours and is probably my favourite out of the three. There is no indication of what the photo could be of. The third photo has the colours an ordinary landscape photo would have, but is blurred in such a way that it's the most like a painting. The three of them look so different from one another, and that's why they work as a set.

Business Boom

"Business Boom Collective is the ideal place to see features of up-and-coming and freelance creatives from the UK and beyond. In collaboration with a collection of modern and slick websites including Business Boom Bolton, The Mancunianist as well as our latest store feature, I Think I Need I Want, it is the perfect place to read up on the brightest individuals and most current businesses linked to the worlds of fashion, photography, art, design and more."

Everyone kept telling me how great Twitter was and such, but now I've experienced it first hand. One of my friends on the course retweeted a status by Business Boom and having your work featured on their website. As an up and coming photographer who's trying to make it out, of course I'd want my work featured! I immediately sent them an email with my website and within a couple of hours they replied that they really liked my Rubber Duck series and they'd "love to put something together for you". They asked me to write a bit about myself, my education, inspirations, aspirations etc. I've just written a short piece including a bit about my rubber duck series, my The Netherlands photos and of course my Succession project. I can't wait to see what it all looks like!! 

January 2013

My boyfriend and I have decided that this year is the year we get off of our butts and do stuff. We have been documenting everything we've done and put it into a 1.30 min video. Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krNZrlufyUA

We're going to create a video like this every month, and by the end of the year we'll have a compilation of all the videos to show how our year has been. The reason we specifically chose this year is because we're starting off in England with our final months on the course, then graduation, Holland, France, Belgium, Dubai, Singapore and Australia. It'll be a whole load of countries and special events. 

Twitter

So I finally got myself a twitter: https://twitter.com/ElaineDeVries. I've only posted one tweet so far, and managed to follow 21 people (mainly from my course) but other than that, I have no idea how it works, what to tweet about and how I can write such short little updates! I should probably know it all, since part of my dissertation was about Twitter......

The Gold Room

I'm very very very happy to announce I will be taking part in The Gold Room's exhibition in March! I showed my interest as soon as I heard about it and submitted my Rubber Ducks project. The theme is "You Are a Window" and since my ducks project is an autobiographical piece, I thought it would be perfect for the show.

This is the email I received:

Hi Elaine,

I would love you to take part in 'you are a window' with your rubber duck series!

I will send you more details in March, but have confirmed you as an artist.

Lou x

Pinterest

Alongside all the other stuff from the post below, I also started using my pinterest account for my photography. It's got my portfolio, a section for pet photography, landscape photography, a behind the scenes section and my 52 week photo challenge photos. On top of that it's also got some photo/travel inspiration. I try and keep my pinterest updated as much as I can, I see it as a blog and portfolio in one. It's a great place to see my diversity of work, both with the subject matter and my medium, but also a place where you can learn more about me. The behind the scenes is a great way to see little bits and pieces from all my shoots, in one place, and the photo challenge also shows a lot of diversity.

http://pinterest.com/elaine721/

Updates

This week has been pretty crazy. Lots of hours at Subway, the studio, large format shoot, time lapse shoot, research, practical work, trying to find a place to get my work developed, more hours at Subway, lots of train journeys, tutorials etc etc etc. I'm exhausted.

First of all, I created a motion blur time lapse, which seemed impossible at first, then ended up being really easy, but then actually turned out was pretty hard. I'm not completely happy with it, and will definitely need some editing, but here is a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhCfJ67C84k. Next time I'm in the Woking area, I'll try this again, but get a more sturdy tripod. The reason the time lapse is a bit all over the place is because while moving my camera up and down, the whole tripod started bouncing up and down too. A sturdier tripod will mean straighter lines, which is what I want to go for.

Secondly, I had my large format shoot, which I already wrote about. The shoot itself was great and I do still love large format, however it's all the stuff you have to do afterwards that's frustrating. Such as the developing and scanning. It wouldn't be too bad, if the university colour processor was working, but unfortunately that's been broken for about 2 months and is currently in Germany.. After a lot of searching/panicking I messaged Fergus Heron to ask where he gets his film processed. He told me about this little place in Brighton where they process the film for £2.50. I phoned them up to see how long it takes to process and they told me 2 hours. The plan was to go to Brighton at 9.33 (be there at 10.45) get to "The Vault" (15 min walk) and get it processed (2 hours - 11.00-13.00), but somehow be back in portsmouth at 14.30 so I could go to work..... I asked whether they could have it finished any quicker and they could! They did it for me in an hour and 15 minutes which left me plenty of time to catch my 13.00 train to be back at 14.15. Phew.

I've also booked the scanner for Thursday afternoon so I can really see how all my images have turned out, but right now this'll have to do!

Finally, I got my marks back for my first semester project (the succession circle) and it's a first!!! Very exciting and an excellent start to the third year. Hopefully all my marks will be this good and I'll pass with flying colours! I also had my dissertation feedback tutorial which was great as well. My tutor explained to me that my content was fine and it's well written, the only criticism is that some bits are too descriptive and others need more analysis. Other than that it's just little bits and pieces that can easily get fixed. She said if the dissertation was marked, it would probably be around a 2:1! My hard work is definitely paying off..

52 Week Challenge: Week 4

This week the theme was "sign". I knew straight away I didn't want to do anything too obvious, like take a photo of a stop sign for example. I was planning to go to the studio with my boyfriend so I thought I should try and combine the two. The main reason I went to the studio was to take photos of a beautiful Azalea plant, so I wanted to use that as a sign in the photos. Since we're nearing Valentines Day and the shops are starting to overflow with pinks and reds, I thought of linking it to Valentines day, meaning the flowers would be a sign of love. My boyfriend and I are in the background looking all happy the emphasize the meaning of the flowers, without using any words.

New Creatives Portsmouth

 On the 25th of January Oliver and I went back to Portsmouth College to see how everyone is doing on their projects. There's beena massive improvement from last time. Sarah, the lady in charge at Portsmouth, has been the most organised person ever, making sure all her students had some work ready on a USB stick for us to have a look at before starting. We had a quick flick through all the work and everything looks great! There is quite a variety of work including photography, graphic design, fashion/textiles etc.

After Oliver and I were updated about everyone's project, we sat in one of the rooms and had a group discussion about each persons work. It was great to see that the students had gained a lot more confidence and were more able to talk about their projects. On the 1st of February, both Portsmouth and Havant college have to submit their labels to Aspex gallery, so they have to know the title, size, format etc. It's super early, since the opening is only in March, and because of that's it's hard to say how everyone's work will be presented. We helped students think of titles and had a chat about how to present their work.


After we spoke about everyone's work, I had a quick one-to-one with one of the girls who wants to do a photography project. She wasn't sure how to go about composing the shots so we talked about some techniques she could use.

Although the New Creatives brief says we should have three visits to each college, we decided it might be best to visit the students one more time closer to the time of the exhibition to see the final pieces and help out with the final bits and pieces.

The Kindness of Strangers

While shooting in Horsell Common today, a dogwalker came up to me and was very interested in the large format camera. We had a little chat and he told me he also had a large format camera, which was about 100 years old! He seemed very impressed with the one from the University and also liked the sound of my project. It was nice to have a chat with someone about my project and who also had a passion for the large format camera.

A little bit later we saw him approaching us again, but this time he had a camera with him instead. He asked me if I was interested in 35mm photography as well, and when I answered yes he offered to give me his Nikon 35mm film camera and "a box with a few other things". I was literally overjoyed! It was such a nice camera with a great lens. We came over to his house where he had laid out all the gear (Photo above). It wasn't "a few other things" he had everything! Including a second lens, a whole range of filters, a flashgun, a second film camera, a bag, a roll of film, various clearers, etc. It was incredible, and he gave it all away for free! He also showed me his large format camera, which was larger than the 5x4, and a 35mm Leica camera. He explained he used to collect cameras and that's why he had such a nice set!

I'm so thankful for all the gear he gave me, I've already been playing around with the camera and it's fantastic!! Expect to see a whole load of film shots over the next couple of months.